Joey Cechini '28 finished 24th out of over 200 runners to earn a medal at the Gettysburg Invitational Boys' Cross Country Meet October 5.

Cechini ran a personal best of 17:20.7 and head coach David Grady noted, "He is the first Mercersburg runner in the three years we have attended this meet to crack the top 25." The Storm was only able to field four athletes for the event so did not qualify for a team score. In addition to Cechini, Will Wallace '27 finished 61st with a time of 18:15.8 while Winston Watkins '25 took 83rd (18:34.7) and Imangali Zhakan '26 came home 132nd (19:31.6).

Coach Grady added, "Joey ran a great race today. He got out strong and stayed strong throughout the race. He was running alongside some very competitive runners from local high schools, most of whom are upperclassmen. This was a very impressive mid-season performance. Joey has been running very well in workouts and it is resulting in better and better race performances. He is also a true competitor who enjoys matching up against good runners and he is motivated to push himself hard in races. Will Wallace, who ran his best cross country 5k time last week, dropped another 25 seconds this week to establish a new personal best. Will ran a very nice race today from start to finish.  He put in a very solid summer of training in preparation for the season, and he has been running quality workouts consistently since the season started. Last week and this week show the fruits of his nice training efforts.  He is a great example of how hard work with an eye towards racing competitively really does pay off."

Mercersburg will host five other schools in a home meet on Saturday, October 12 at 10 am.